[iPodTunes]

For the past two(2) years from the age of 18; I always supported Conservative. Though recently I have defected to Labour..

My background is purely working-class: Father came from India at the age of 28 from where he used to be a landowner and my mother was a 2nd generation British Indian who's parents came from India.

My parents have always supported for Labour and I remember my father telling me how a friend of his used to work for £2-3 an hour before this was introduced by Labour. Then Labour opened up education for all through the Open university and Surestart..etc, and further I realised the £30 EMA I was receiving each week proved to be an incentive to work hard at Sixth Form and conquer my A-level exams where I achieved straight-As at A-level.

Following Sixth Form, I went on to a R.G university to read Law though I left by the end of the 1st year as the subject was no interest to me, though the social life was fun haha. Following this I ended up with a job at an investment bank within a regional office where I support sales and trading desks in London. This is where I experienced reality. We can all have ambitions and aspirations of doing well in Life but when you see the reality of young people lining up for dole outside the job centre on your way to work or a single mother with five(5) children you know society has trembled and the fruits have been reaped by those at the top.

I'll be re-starting at a new R.G university this year in the top15 of the country where I shall be reading Economics. I know where my roots lie and I know I want to be successful in life and have ambitions within: investment banking, consultancy, civil service, politics.

I have deduced that if the last 15years was ran by a Conservative Govt then I would probably tried less hard at school with there being no incentive. I would have seen achieving B/C-grades as the norm whilst privately-educated counterparts were miles ahead. My mother would have probably been on £3-4 an hour and university education would have remained to those at the top.

I do not hid the fact that Labour did make mistakes, a generation of graduates/young people who cannot jobs, an abundance invested in social benefits..etc..but I suppose we all make mistakes.

[pshewitt1]

(Original post by iPodTunes)
For the past two(2) years from the age of 18; I always supported Conservative. Though recently I have defected to Labour..

My background is purely working-class: Father came from India at the age of 28 from where he used to be a landowner and my mother was a 2nd generation British Indian who's parents came from India.

My parents have always supported for Labour and I remember my father telling me how a friend of his used to work for £2-3 an hour before this was introduced by Labour. Then Labour opened up education for all through the Open university and Surestart..etc, and further I realised the £30 EMA I was receiving each week proved to be an incentive to work hard at Sixth Form and conquer my A-level exams where I achieved straight-As at A-level.

Following Sixth Form, I went on to a R.G university to read Law though I left by the end of the 1st year as the subject was no interest to me, though the social life was fun haha. Following this I ended up with a job at an investment bank within a regional office where I support sales and trading desks in London. This is where I experienced reality. We can all have ambitions and aspirations of doing well in Life but when you see the reality of young people lining up for dole outside the job centre on your way to work or a single mother with five(5) children you know society has trembled and the fruits have been reaped by those at the top.

I'll be re-starting at a new R.G university this year in the top15 of the country where I shall be reading Economics. I know where my roots lie and I know I want to be successful in life and have ambitions within: investment banking, consultancy, civil service, politics.

I have deduced that if the last 15years was ran by a Conservative Govt then I would probably tried less hard at school with there being no incentive. I would have seen achieving B/C-grades as the norm whilst privately-educated counterparts were miles ahead. My mother would have probably been on £3-4 an hour and university education would have remained to those at the top.

I do not hid the fact that Labour did make mistakes, a generation of graduates/young people who cannot jobs, an abundance invested in social benefits..etc..but I suppose we all make mistakes.

all very honourable and all but surely you can see after being a conservative that the left is still highly contradictory, even if the idea is good at heart will lead to some form of catastrophe as I will point out in a moment. You realise the minimum wage made Britain less competitive abroad and devalued the £, correct? so countries like china have taken over manufacturing even though we used to be world renowned for engineering. Back then £2-3 wasn't that bad, in fact you could probably buy a lot more with that then than now.

secondly Labour opening up insitiutes like the open university and wanting 90% of all students to go to university was idealistic and stupid, this is what degraded the value of a degree. This also in turn meant that universities now had to be paid for by the student due to the massive influx of new students, hence why we now have the £9000 a year fee, back then it was free. In turn leaving more money foe the country while others who didn't go to university were trained in skills to be productive and had decent hands on experience. All this made it alot harder to get a job. Then on top of this they didn't control immigration leading to now a population of 70million where if it had been kept at 60-65 unemployment would be nowhere near as high and therefore not as many on the dole meaning there would be more money around to invest in things that labour did do well such as the NHS.

If £30 a week was your only incentive to do well then no wonder you dropped out of university... and no wonder you wish to be an investment banker... that isn't very 'labouristic' of you, at least the original labouristic view. then onto your point about only achieving B/C's back then, '15 years ago' or so that would have gotten you into imperial... because the syllabus wasn't dumbed down by labour. Your mothers income would not have then mattered if the Tory's had remained as university was free... you could have gotten a job to pay for food etc...and money would have stretched further.


all in all you seem to be rather capitalist right wing... unless as an IB you are going to deny huge bonuses etc, then you are being completely hypocritical by voting labour.

[FrogInABog]

(Original post by iPodTunes)
I realised the £30 EMA I was receiving each week proved to be an incentive to work hard at Sixth Form and conquer my A-level exams where I achieved straight-As at A-level.

I have deduced that if the last 15years was ran by a Conservative Govt then I would probably tried less hard at school with there being no incentive. I would have seen achieving B/C-grades as the norm

These two bits just keep repeating themselves in my head.

Do you seriously believe that you need to be paid to want to achieve good grades? Going to school and working hard is something you do in order to get a good job and earn money later in life.

I've never received EMA, and my only incentive to work hard is the opportunity of getting into a good university, and getting a good job. You shouldn't need to be paid to go to school. Can you imagine how selfish that would sound to someone in a 3rd world country, where they're lucky to get an education at all?

[iPodTunes]

(Original post by FrogInABog)
These two bits just keep repeating themselves in my head.

Do you seriously believe that you need to be paid to want to achieve good grades? Going to school and working hard is something you do in order to get a good job and earn money later in life.

I've never received EMA, and my only incentive to work hard is the opportunity of getting into a good university, and getting a good job. You shouldn't need to be paid to go to school. Can you imagine how selfish that would sound to someone in a 3rd world country, where they're lucky to get an education at all?

It was an incentive in the fact that it covered: books, materials etc

Transport..if only buses were free?

[pshewitt1]

(Original post by iPodTunes)
It was an incentive in the fact that it covered: books, materials etc

books are free, many schools have a library

[iPodTunes]

(Original post by pshewitt1)
all very honourable and all but surely you can see after being a conservative that the left is still highly contradictory, even if the idea is good at heart will lead to some form of catastrophe as I will point out in a moment. You realise the minimum wage made Britain less competitive abroad and devalued the £, correct? so countries like china have taken over manufacturing even though we used to be world renowned for engineering. Back then £2-3 wasn't that bad, in fact you could probably buy a lot more with that then than now.

secondly Labour opening up insitiutes like the open university and wanting 90% of all students to go to university was idealistic and stupid, this is what degraded the value of a degree. This also in turn meant that universities now had to be paid for by the student due to the massive influx of new students, hence why we now have the £9000 a year fee, back then it was free. In turn leaving more money foe the country while others who didn't go to university were trained in skills to be productive and had decent hands on experience. All this made it alot harder to get a job. Then on top of this they didn't control immigration leading to now a population of 70million where if it had been kept at 60-65 unemployment would be nowhere near as high and therefore not as many on the dole meaning there would be more money around to invest in things that labour did do well such as the NHS.

If £30 a week was your only incentive to do well then no wonder you dropped out of university... and no wonder you wish to be an investment banker... that isn't very 'labouristic' of you, at least the original labouristic view. then onto your point about only achieving B/C's back then, '15 years ago' or so that would have gotten you into imperial... because the syllabus wasn't dumbed down by labour. Your mothers income would not have then mattered if the Tory's had remained as university was free... you could have gotten a job to pay for food etc...and money would have stretched further.


all in all you seem to be rather capitalist right wing... unless as an IB you are going to deny huge bonuses etc, then you are being completely hypocritical by voting labour.

Even the LabourParty stands for hardwork and prosperity hence the IB bonuses will be a result of that hardwork

[pshewitt1]

(Original post by iPodTunes)
Even the LabourParty stands for hardwork and prosperity hence the IB bonuses will be a result of that hardwork

no all they stand for is equality, apart from the current labour didn't seem to do that all too well, anyone want a peer-ridge for £100k? They also wished to stop 'banker bonuses' are you sure you live in the UK? You also seem to have contradicted yourself again wish the last paragraph of your main piece and the word 'hard work' in this one..they brought in yob/slob culture and hence why we have 'the lads' around now.. not completely to blame on labour but still you seem to be covering up what you don't want to see

[iPodTunes]

(Original post by pshewitt1)
books are free, many schools have a library

Transport..if only buses were free eh? food etc

[HarryPotterFanx]

(Original post by pshewitt1)
books are free, many schools have a library

However, you can't keep a library book. You can't write in it like many people do when revising. Also, at AS Level you are required to pay for trips if your parents can't afford it... [at one college I applied for, if you take media studies you have to pay £250 for a trip and it's compulsory. If people saved a fiver a week then they would have some of the cost and it wouldn't be such a big ask for the parents.

Also, what about travel and lunch? 6/5 pound an hour isn't a lot you know.

[pshewitt1]

(Original post by iPodTunes)
Transport..if only buses were free eh? food etc

so you're saying even with labours minimum wage etc your parents couldn't afford transport for your basic education? ... might be a good idea to read what you wrote again... then there's child benefits or was... the welfare system..etc

[Miraclefish]

Bonuses in IB are not awarded for success and hard work. That's kinda the point.

I see what you're saying, that the EMA helped you cover expenses... but without that you wouldn't have tried, you said, rather than you would have found it harder to keep going.

It sounds like you're looking for an easy life through getting into banking. Which is the utter antithesis of everything Labour should stand for.

[Llamageddon]

People tend to stick to a political pole when they're too thick to realise the other side has solid points too. There's nothing wrong with supporting any of the three political parties as all three contribute good ideas and are broadly centrist.

[pshewitt1]

(Original post by HarryPotterFanx)
However, you can't keep a library book. You can't write in it like many people do when revising. Also, at AS Level you are required to pay for trips if your parents can't afford it... [at one college I applied for, if you take media studies you have to pay £250 for a trip and it's compulsory. If people saved a fiver a week then they would have some of the cost and it wouldn't be such a big ask for the parents.

Also, what about travel and lunch?

please look below for some of that. no but the school provides essential reading pieces which are definitely enough to get an A*. there's something called paper..you can write in that instead, you can also photocopy the book... Not once has a trip been compulsory for me, May I ask why you had to spend £250 on a trip dare i say 5 minutes from your school when you could travel around europe on the inter rail for that much?

[pshewitt1]

(Original post by Llamageddon)
People tend to stick to a political pole when they're too thick to realise the other side has solid points too. There's nothing wrong with supporting any of the three political parties as all three contribute good ideas and are broadly centrist.

no of course I hate totalitarianism but if your basis on changing sides is false and having only being given one side of an argument you can hardly form a discussion on TSR about 'why I switched' but yes i agree with you

[Mr_PC]

It's so funny how people think that the government owes them everything - reason why I'm a Conservative.

Seriously stop complaint and compare to what you get in the UK to the rest of the world, and vote Conservative as Labour gives too much away to spoilt kids.

I had to work VERY hard in Spain and got NOTHING from the government.

[A Perfect Circle]

I don't know much about politics but it looks like the OP got trounced in the 2nd post and their following response was really weak.

[HarryPotterFanx]

(Original post by pshewitt1)
please look below for some of that. no but the school provides essential reading pieces which are definitely enough to get an A*. there's something called paper..you can write in that instead, you can also photocopy the book... Not once has a trip been compulsory for me, May I ask why you had to spend £250 on a trip dare i say 5 minutes from your school when you could travel around europe on the inter rail for that much?

Their might be paper but paper can get easily lost, while a book which is your own is harder to lose. Photocopying the book would mean a ton of paper which could get lost, again. Actually the trip is not in the country. It's in Europe. I don't actually support Labour but I understand the guys point.

[pshewitt1]

(Original post by HarryPotterFanx)
Their might be paper but paper can get easily lost, while a book which is your own is harder to lose. Photocopying the book would mean a ton of paper which could get lost, again. Actually the trip is not in the country. It's in Europe. I don't actually support Labour but I understand the guys point.

well if money wasn't the only thing that motivated him then maybe he would have the motivation not to lose paper which is important, even if he does lose it he can make additional notes which will only further his understanding,surely? Never have I seen a school which forces students on trips... why was it compulsory? that's the sort of thing uni's do..

[HarryPotterFanx]

(Original post by Mr_PC)
It's so funny how people think that the government owes them everything - reason why I'm a Conservative.

Seriously stop complaint and compare to what you get in the UK to the rest of the world, and vote Conservative as Labour gives too much away to spoilt kids.

I had to work VERY hard in Spain and got NOTHING from the government.

So, you believe "spoilt kids" like the OP in your mind, doesn't deserve an education because of his parents wealth? His parents income isn't his own fault. All the OP ever said that EMA gave him the money he needed to buy his book and the stuff he needed to succeed.

Urm, again you sound like one of those people who doesn't know what the word debate means. A debate or talk like this isn't just "I'm right, your wrong. Debate over. "vote Conservative as Labour gives too much away to spoilt kids." Why don't people look at ALL parties and see that each party has good ideas. Such as the Conservatives and Education and so on.

[HarryPotterFanx]

(Original post by pshewitt1)
well if money wasn't the only thing that motivated him then maybe he would have the motivation not to lose paper which is important, even if he does lose it he can make additional notes which will only further his understanding,surely? Never have I seen a school which forces students on trips... why was it compulsory? that's the sort of thing uni's do..

I don't know if he photocopied books or if he had paper but all I'm saying is having a book to study from can sometimes help. I mean, I come from a working class family who are going to pay for my AS/A2 books and equipment and I want to get a part time job to help but not everyone thinks like that or acts like that. All, I can do is understand what the OP is saying. It was a coursework trip. I know forcing people on trips for that amount of money is abnormal but it does happen sometimes.